The more footage I see of Disney’s fantasy film and potential summer blockbuster Maleficent, the more fantastic it looks. Although early clips looked as if it relied too much on CGI splendor, Angelina Jolie looks like she has the magnetism to carry the film as the titular villain.
Trying to market the effects-heavy fantasy must be difficult, as the studio must try to draw in young girls through the enchanting fairy tale elements, young boys with grand, medieval action, and older fans of Sleeping Beauty with a Wicked-like revisionist story. So, Maleficent‘s new trailer is quite the success, since it gives each of those audiences a bit to chew on.
In the film’s third trailer, Jolie’s sinister Mistress of All Evil reveals a bit of backstory to what inspired her mischievous aims. It seems that she was more a victim of circumstance than an aggressor to Princess Aurora, and Jolie definitely has the ability to make us pity her.
Unlike Tim Burton’s more whimsical Alice in Wonderland, which this film seems to mirror aesthetically, Maleficent looks more bleak and violent. Sharlto Copley, who plays King Stefan, looks psyched for revenge, telling an off-screen crony to bring him Maleficent’s head. As the PG rating alludes, this may be as dark as the film gets. On the bright side, we get a few dazzling seconds of dragon fire as the trailer ends.
Maleficent is due in theatres on May 30 and is a big question mark box office-wise for the Mouse House, (although with money from Frozen ticket receipts, DVD sales and merchandise still coming in by the truckloads, we shouldn’t be too fearful that Disney will go bust anytime soon). The footage is rather gloomy and Sleeping Beauty does not have the same cultural significance as, say, The Wizard of Oz, which Disney recently explored with an origin story. But, Jolie seems like a more formidable fantasy lead than Kirsten Stewart or James Franco, and a tremendous ensemble (including Elle Fanning, Imelda Staunton and Sam Riley) only makes me more optimistic.
Click on the trailer below to decide for yourself if dragons have a bolder screen presence than a cackling Angelina Jolie.
